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A good question. You have two choices for characters, so I'll detail them both. You only get 3 skills, though. Normally you can have 5.

By the way, all characters have different and unique playstyles!

Ieyasu Tokugawa

All characters have about an 8 string normal moveset (square). Ieyasu, though, can charge each of his moves though. Charging his punches deals more damage and does faster guard break. You should pretty much charge every punch you can. Don't worry, if you time it right (The flash and sound) you will not break your combo.

Ieyasu also has a running attack and it immediately goes into the fourth hit of his normal string.

Ieyasu has access to three of his skills. A charge punch, a gut punch and follow up, and his ground quake move.

You can charge the Triangle punch while doing other things, like running and attacking. Know that you cannot combo after it unless you cancel with Basara! Dash and dodge canceling don't work.

The gut punch is Direction+Triangle. However, how long you hold triangle will affect how far Ieyasu dashes for the punch. You can go a decent distance by holding it in all the way. To follow up, you can hit square after the gut punch. The gut punch will stun the enemy for a second or two. Possible to combo after.

His third skill is R1. You can charge this attack to another level, but you cannot combo into it then. It's best used to end your normal string early. Best to use after his fifth or sixth hit of his normal string to catch a falling opponent. Possible to combo after.

Mitsunari Ishida

Mitsunari is different, but really good. His normal string can be difficult until you get the hang of it. Timing is key here. Time your button presses with the time he sheathes his sword. You can get more hits this way. You'll know you did it wrong if his normal string seems rather short.

His Triangle is a sweep kick upwards. It will launch opponents for juggling. However, HOLD Triangle to teleport up to your opponents and you can send them flying with an air combo (square x3, triangle).

His Direction+Triangle is difficult to use. He basically rushes forward and does a slash. However, you can pretty much cancel the dash at anytime with a normal move. This makes a good buffer move to get to another person and continue your combo.

His R1 is really good. It sets of a series of super fast slashes that suck people in. This can be charged up for a few more hits. The best part of this move, though, is that you can use it at the end of any of his other attacks. For the most part, if you time R1 correctly, you can buffer this skill in for free after pretty much any of his other moves. ABUSE IT.

Please help me, I'm dying!

Here's some pointers to keep in mind.

-Guard! You can block a certain amount of attacks before your guard is broken. However, most enemies will use their normal string first and end with a skill. There are gaps in normal strings where you can DODGE out of the way. L1+Direction will save your life! USE IT.

-Parry! Parrying can be tough at first, but as you learn enemies attacks, it's easy! Just hit L1 the second before they hit you and you will perform an attack shattering parry. Parries to damage! Also, they leave the enemy staggering for several seconds. Get a combo in!

-Life! You can find health drops in red boxes! Also, every 50 kills nets you a small life recovery item!

-Take Bases! Enemy generals are stronger when they still have bases left. When you encounter a general, you can see a few stars above their life bar. These represent bases and their relative strength for this stage, so take those bases! Bases also provide quick power-ups to health, attack, or defense for about 15 seconds after you take one.

-Save Hero Time (Boost) and Basara! If you know you're going to fight a general, save them! You can use both of them to interrupt an enemy's attack! If you know they're going to hit you, use them and save some life!

-Hero Time recovers! Hero Time is gained for every 125 kills or so. However, when activated, you can recover time by killing enemies! About every five or so is worth one second, so get to slaughtering!

-Dash! Double tap forward to dash right away instead of waiting for him to do it himself. Dashes can be used to cancel some attacks recovery time! Guard-Dodging can be used sometimes too!

-Clash! When you and opponent trade blows three times in a row and clash, you'll have to outmash the computer in hitting square. Doing so will hit the computer for some damage and then stun them for several seconds. HIT THEM A LOT NOW.

And if you want to know, Ieyasu can infinite people. Here's how:

Start your normal string, but charge all your punches for the most damage.

After Ieyasu jumps into the air with an uppercut, land and start charging R1.

When they hit the ground, let go and send them flying. Use Direction+Triangle to follow them and gut punch them. Follow up with a charged Follow up attack to send them into the air.

Repeat.

Game is due out on Oct. 12 in the States.

Go watch Sengoku Basara Season 1 on Hulu! Season 2 has already started airing!

New and Recent Things

-Last playable characters is Nobunaga Oda.

-Body Guard System
It seems that you can now bring a body guard into battle. There are supposed to be about 100 of them or so. Not sure how unique they are, but you can bring NPCs like Katakura Kojuuro and Sarutobi Sasuke with you. They will do their Basara Attack when you activate yours.

-Item System
You no longer select a set of five items. Now, all items are attached to weapons. Not sure how exactly it changes everything, but there are a ton of items in the this game. Expect to be collecting a lot. Some of them may be materials?

-More unique NPC characters.
There are some more boss NPC characters hanging around now. Tachibana Muneshige is one (he's got chainsaw swords???), along with quite a few others including a follow of Xabi-ism. (Thankfully Xabi is not in this game)

-Even more gigantic enemies
Ugh, these guys. These giant enemies are usually midbosses or something. I hope they aren't as annoying to take down as before. They can wreck your shit from 0 to 60 in about two seconds.

What is it?

The newest sequel to Capcom's hack-and-slash clone of Dynasty Warriors. This game, unlike Samurai Warriors, is light on history and more focused on action and flair. Need proof? The guys who worked on Devil May Cry are on this.
What's new/different?

There's a lot different from the previous version that you didn't get to play unless you imported it. No, I'm not talking about the abomination that was Devil Kings.
We'll break it down real quick like:

-A new focus on Sekigahara (basically the tail end of Japan's Civil War in the 1600's, the Sengoku)
-6 brand new characters, plus 2 new unique NPC characters
-A shit ton of removed characters
-A new stronghold/base system that involves explosions
-Dash/Run system (I think)
-Being able to equip 3 skills instead of 2

Wait, removed characters? Wtf?

Yeah, so Capcom decided that having more characters to play as was dumb and decided to remove characters from Sengoku Basara 2/Heroes who all HAD UNIQUE MOVE SETS. THERE WERE NO MORE CLONES.

Most likely Capcom decided to take out quite a few of the characters because of the new focus on Sekigahara and removed all the dead/injured ones. But then they also decided to remove a bunch of others for no reason too. Who knows, really.
So how do I play this game?

It runs exactly the same as Dynasty Warriors. You have win/defeat conditions and you get to tear up the battle field with your character of choice. The difference being that stages in SB tend to be a bit more linear than DW.

As far as I know, the leveling system and item system from SB2 is back, so before each battle, you can equip a weapon, 5 items, and 3 skills now.
You earn new skills from leveling up your character and find items and weapons as you lay waste to the battle grounds.
In SB2, each character had a total of 6 weapons that they could find, each having a different look and varying stats. The weapons weren't mere power-ups either, as each weapon has its own varying effects, such as higher defense, better charge rate, ect. There were also joke weapons and a super powerful ultimate weapon.

You also earn money as you smash bad guys into dust to buy items and other things at the shop and the amount of money you can bash out of an enemy is related to your combo.
Wait, combos, like a fighting game?

Yeah, SB has a ridiculous combo system where you try and rack up as many hits as you can. About every 100 hits, you get a new rating (like DMC's combo system rank) and more money flies out of your foes.

Each character has a normal attack chain, which doesn't really warrant a lot of hits, but you use it buffer into your more damaging/combo racking skills. Skills vary drastically from character to character, and you'll need to play around with them in order to find the best combination to take into battle.

When you hit about 1000 hits or so, you go into a Fever mode, which allows you to hit harder for awhile and also your combo won't drop if you stop attacking for a small amount of time. This allows you to run up to another group of enemies and beat the tar out of them and continue your sky shattering combo.

Also, you have two bars that slowly charge as you fight and do damage. The Basara bar allows your character to do their super move which is usually a group bashing, multi-hit damage fest.

The other bar is your Basara Drive. When full, you can activate Basara mode and your damage sky rockets. You also get super armor while in this mode, so baddies won't be able to knock you out of your attacks, although you still take damage. It's a really good idea to save this for when you're getting the tar kicked out of you and you can use it as a combo interrupt. You also get a stronger version of your Basara attack while in this mode.
So bases? And explosions?

In certain areas, you'll have to defeat a base/stronghold captain before being able to proceed. These guys are easy to see as they sit inside this tower like structure. Once you beat on them enough, they explode. However this doesn't damage you, but rather every enemy around you. If enough enemies are around you can easily rack up 400 hits.
Current List of Playable Characters

Spoiler:

Tokugawa Ieyasu – Third of the Three Great Unifiers of Japan. He has been upgraded from SB2, where he was a midget, into a bare-fisted brawling son of a bitch.

Mitsunari Ishida – Strategist to Hideyoshi and leads the West Army after the death of his lord. He's obviously evil which is sort of a nod to his Onimusha counterpart. Except Capcom has made every one of the Unifiers and their men (except Tokugawa) evil for some reason. Really weird.

Sanada Yukimura – Retainer of the Takeda until they fell, he is credited as being one of the greatest samurai. Here, Yukimura's a hot-blooded warrior that seems like he's had too much sugar.

Date Masamune – Hailing from Oshu, the One-Eyed Dragon is a young general who helped Tokugawa win Sekigahara. A six-sword wielding bad-ass, Date is a cool motherfucker. Peppers his Japanese with English expressions and rides a horse with EXHAUST PIPES AND MOTORCYCLE HANDLES.

Otani Yoshitsugu - A strategist under Mitsunari. He has leprosy (I don't know if they refer to it, though, he might end up just being 'diseased') and pretty much went into battle on the verge of dieing. In the game, he's kind of crazy and wants everyone to suffer. To that end, he works for Mitsunari and tries to prolong the war.

Saika Magoichi (English uses Saica, more feminine?) - The leader of the Saika faction (or Saika Renegades) who are proficient in the use of fire arms. Historically shown as usually being male, the leader is given the title of Magoichi and is female in this version. She's basically the replacement for Nouhime and gets to sling guns like the best of them.

Kuroda Kanbei - Another officer under Hideyoshi (who is now dead in SB3). In SB3, he's portrayed as wanting to conquer the land himself. Hideyoshi didn't like his ambition so he imprisoned him. Now free, Kanbei seeks to control the land again, although he is stuck carrying around a ball and chain. He uses this to fight to hilarious and damaging effect.

Tsuruhime - I'm not sure who she's supposed to be based off historically. Anyways, she's some kind of priestess who wields a bow and has a bowl haircut. Her name means Crane Princess and she ice skates for her Basara attack.

Honda Tadakatsu - A retainer to Tokugawa, Tadakatsu was feared for his ferocity in battle and his Tonbo-giri spear. In SB, he's a giant mech who follows Ieyasu's orders to the letter. He's amazingly strong, almost brokenly so, and if you ever encounter him, it's a good idea to run for the hills. He has a drill spear and he'll pierce your heavens and more if you let him.

Chosokabe Motochika - The boss of Shikoku, Motochika rules his island with his navy. He's got an anchor, an eye-patch, and a bunch of fun gadgets to throw at you. He's some kind of pirate/yakuza boss hybrid and will kick the shit out of you because he feels like it.

Mori Motonari - He was a lord near central Japan and had three sons that fought over his succession or something. He wields some kind of ring blade and treats his followers like shit. He also wants to rule the country, but his fief is in dire straights and so he joins Mitsunari for now.

Maeda Keiji - The vagabond with a penchant for wine, women, and song is back! Keiji wields a giant sword and basically runs amok with it. Probably the most happy-go-lucky guy in the Sengoku, that is until you talk about his past with Hideyoshi. Since Hideyoshi died, Keiji decided to side with his longtime friend Uesugi Kenshin. Keiji had one of the best abilities in SB2 where you could do his dance taunt and make enemies dance along with you. Also, the longer you held his taunt, the longer his spin during his Basara would last. I once danced all the way to the enemy general and then proceeded to spin 65 (SIXTY FIVE) times in a row. I bet Keiji threw up after that.

Shimazu Yoshihiro - One of the four brothers of Shimazu, he resided over in Kyuushuu until Hideyoshi came over and slapped everyone around. He's old and has a big sword. He's never had much of a personality in these games other than being old and he's still doing that now. Being old that is.

Oichi - Poor poor Oichi. She's my favorite character but she suffers so much Now that her husband Azai Nagamasa is dead and so is her brother Nobunaga, Oichi has basically broken down so much that she has forcefully forgotten everything. She basically wanders the land wishing to die and seeks someone strong enough to do it. The problem is, is that she's even more intuned with her dark spirits now and they seem to be swallowing her up now. She no longer fights with her awesome double naginata, but instead, fights solely with her spirits.

Fuma Kotarou - The legendary ninja from the Fuma clan returns. Rival to Hattori Hanzo, although Hanzo is not in this game (weird, right?). Fuma is a silent bad ass and serves the Hojo clan. Seriously, I don't think he even makes any noises at all. Perfect ninja I guess?

Man... I want to be interested in this but all the characters I liked to play as have been taken out. I'm still hoping that I can somehow unlock Matsu, Kasuga or Kenshin to play as even though they're all listed as NPCs. Tokugawa Ieyasu does seem pretty awesome though.

As far as I know, there are no plans on including any of former playable characters, but they are supposed to be adding in more playable characters.
They said that these characters will play a part in the second anime series (which starts pretty soon!)

Also, Musashi was pretty terrible in SB2. I would want a re-tooled move set for him.

Hmm. A larger focus on Sekigahara, eh? Any chance of an appearance by Otani Yoshitsugu, then, outside of faceless NPC? He wasn't really important whatsoever, but come on, he was a leper and he was still at Sekigahara. That's just asking to be made into some ridiculous thing in a game like this.

Also, after seeing some videos for this, and seeing Magoichi, I uh...well, I'm confused. Is that supposed to be Saiga's wife? Is he not in it? (Bear in mind, I have nearly no exposure to the Basara series so I don't know their take on the whole Saika Ikki angle.)

Hmm. A larger focus on Sekigahara, eh? Any chance of an appearance by Otani Yoshitsugu, then, outside of faceless NPC? He wasn't really important whatsoever, but come on, he was a leper and he was still at Sekigahara. That's just asking to be made into some ridiculous thing in a game like this.

Also, after seeing some videos for this, and seeing Magoichi, I uh...well, I'm confused. Is that supposed to be Saiga's wife? Is he not in it? (Bear in mind, I have nearly no exposure to the Basara series so I don't know their take on the whole Saika Ikki angle.)

Yeah, sorry I haven't gotten around to doing all the characters yet, but Otani is totally in. He's pretty crazy/cool.

No, Magoichi is Magoichi. Basically, the name Magoichi Saika is only a title, I guess, given to the leader of the Saika Renegades (or what have you), so they went with making it a woman and having a replacement for Nouhime.

Hmm. A larger focus on Sekigahara, eh? Any chance of an appearance by Otani Yoshitsugu, then, outside of faceless NPC? He wasn't really important whatsoever, but come on, he was a leper and he was still at Sekigahara. That's just asking to be made into some ridiculous thing in a game like this.

Also, after seeing some videos for this, and seeing Magoichi, I uh...well, I'm confused. Is that supposed to be Saiga's wife? Is he not in it? (Bear in mind, I have nearly no exposure to the Basara series so I don't know their take on the whole Saika Ikki angle.)

Yeah, sorry I haven't gotten around to doing all the characters yet, but Otani is totally in. He's pretty crazy/cool.

No, Magoichi is Magoichi. Basically, the name Magoichi Saika is only a title, I guess, given to the leader of the Saika Renegades (or what have you), so they went with making it a woman and having a replacement for Nouhime.

Aha. Makes sense. They weren't really covered extensively by history so it's pretty easy to play around like that. Not that I mind; she looks crazy fun.

Had this preordered since at least last month. Looking forward to it! I hope it has JP voice overs, because I'm pretty sure Norio Wakamoto was voicing Nobunaga if I remember right from the show. Masamune was pretty awesome too. I'll be back, going to put my guns on.

Man, I've been playing Samurai Warriors 3 for the last couple of weeks or so and as a result, my mental pictures of Ieyasu and Ishida are nothing like the pictures in the OP, which is kind of confusing.

Yukimura and Masamune are pretty close to their SW3 looks so they don't bother me that much.

You bastard, I want SW3, but Europe somehow got it months before us. *shakes fist*

Anyways, OP has been updated with characters. I'll get the rest of the pics tomorrow when I'm at home.

Edit:

Looking through the Japanese site. Really wish I could read this. Anyways, notes:

-Lots of NPCs it looks like
-Skills now level up. May depend on the skill, but looks like 3 Levels to a skill maybe?
-Bodyguard system? Not sure about this one, but it looks like you can call in somebody.
-There are three types of bases, and taking it over gets you a bonus to some stats.
-New Deadlock system... or Stylish Clash Hyakretsuken system.
-Even more giant robot enemy things to fight
-Looks like there are 12 (TWELVE) weapons for each character.
-Also, you can synth or make your weapons stronger by applying items to them.

Hrm. They certainly like playing around with who lives and who dies, apparently. Kenshin's still around despite being dead for 22 years, and apparently, Tsuruhime was based on someone from the "Pre-Nobunaga Sengoku era". And Hojo Ujimasa's been dead for 10 years. (This is all based on the date of Sekigahara, October 21st, 1600) Just on a quick perusal of some of the characters, that's already kind of weird, considering the ones that have been left out for also being dead. (Especially Hanzo. I mean, it'd only been 4 years, and it's Hanzo goddamn Hattori)

I'm still interested, but I'll need more than 15 characters to put this in "Must Get" range. Hopefully they announce more. (Are they going to announce more?)

Hrm. They certainly like playing around with who lives and who dies, apparently. Kenshin's still around despite being dead for 22 years, and apparently, Tsuruhime was based on someone from the "Pre-Nobunaga Sengoku era". And Hojo Ujimasa's been dead for 10 years. (This is all based on the date of Sekigahara, October 21st, 1600) Just on a quick perusal of some of the characters, that's already kind of weird, considering the ones that have been left out for also being dead. (Especially Hanzo. I mean, it'd only been 4 years, and it's Hanzo goddamn Hattori)

I'm still interested, but I'll need more than 15 characters to put this in "Must Get" range. Hopefully they announce more. (Are they going to announce more?)

You're asking for historical accuracy in a game where men weilding three swords in each hand, pirates surfing across land on giant anchors, and feudal-era Power Rangers are the norm?

This is what I love about the Basara games. Capcom looked at the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, realised that all the seriousness of the plot and characters could not disguise how fucking ridiculous the actual gameplay is, and decided to make their version of the events as batshit crazy as the game's premise.

Hrm. They certainly like playing around with who lives and who dies, apparently. Kenshin's still around despite being dead for 22 years, and apparently, Tsuruhime was based on someone from the "Pre-Nobunaga Sengoku era". And Hojo Ujimasa's been dead for 10 years. (This is all based on the date of Sekigahara, October 21st, 1600) Just on a quick perusal of some of the characters, that's already kind of weird, considering the ones that have been left out for also being dead. (Especially Hanzo. I mean, it'd only been 4 years, and it's Hanzo goddamn Hattori)

I'm still interested, but I'll need more than 15 characters to put this in "Must Get" range. Hopefully they announce more. (Are they going to announce more?)

You're asking for historical accuracy in a game where men weilding three swords in each hand, pirates surfing across land on giant anchors, and feudal-era Power Rangers are the norm?

This is what I love about the Basara games. Capcom looked at the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, realised that all the seriousness of the plot and characters could not disguise how fucking ridiculous the actual gameplay is, and decided to make their version of the events as batshit crazy as the game's premise.

Not really historical accuracy, just a little less schizophrenia in the characters they pick to be in the roster. :p

Maybe it's just me, but I find myself routinely getting defeated by the upper tier bosses like Nobunaga, Yukimura, etc. I just can't seem to do enough damage to them to defeat them. They dodge like monkeys on crack and hit like freight trains. I also only have two of the six learned techniques available to me as Date, and these are the only two conquest levels I can do. This is on normal difficulty.

... They ate, slept and worked. Some of them found uninteresting partners at work who they married and came home to. Sometimes they would half-heartededly thrust into each other and children were made. They lived a middle class existence until their deaths to heart disease and cancer.

every time i see someone playing, it's this crazy godlike warrior beating the shit out of a bunch of mooks on the battlefield who never even touch him

are there tougher enemies or bosses or do you get overwhelmed by large numbers? do you control your forces or something? what is going on here? is the challenge being stylistic or getting a better time to beat the level or successfully winning the battle or what?

Actually, if you're not careful, you die alot. At least in the first game. If you're *not* constantly on the offensive, you'll get swamped. I died once after I was at half health and just killed an enemy commader (most common *real* threat), and then some random ninja mook goes super sayian on me and carves me down to a sliver of health. I died shortly there after. The boss characters vary in difficulty too.

So, it's not a cake walk. But it is a lot of fun once you get rolling.